COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTIONTwo of the world’s oldest beverages join forces to conquer your palate. Victory at Sea embodies the art of masterful brewing by infusing a velvety Imperial Porter with pure vanilla flavor and specially-selected, hand roasted coffee. The addition of cold brewed coffee to the beer lends a subtle roasted flavor to this robust imperial porter, blending perfectly with rich vanilla and caramel undertones. By uniting two San Diego brewing traditions, Caffe Calabria freshly brewed coffee and Ballast Point beer, we have successfully created an artisanal masterpiece.

Bottle - dark brownish/black pour with creamy beige head. Aroma - vanilla, coffee, musty wood and some booze. Taste is pretty damn nice. Each sip is different. First you taste the vanilla and then this smooth coffee flavor with hint dark chocolate! I swirled it in my snifter and the vanilla and coffee just popped! Palate - mouthfeel is somewhat oily and aftertaste is almost nonexistent. Overall an enjoyable beer. Tastes more like 6% abv and goes down smooth! Probably a touch too much vanilla but otherwise perfect.

/too dark to see through, & a rockier head than i’ve seen in a long time, like a natural sponge. you can’t sescape the chocolate, in aroma or flavor. taste-wise there’s dark coffee, walnut & toffee. aroma has lumber & caramel. ligt and smooth on the pallet. a little on the sweet side but rich tasting.

Magnificient beer from such a magnifiscient brewery! Aromas are litterally on the vanilla side. Burnt sugar on the nose, warm smells of caramel and crème brûlée, this nose is smooth and complex. The head is very tiny, quite inexistant I’d rather say. Taste is half and half coffee/vanilla. This beer stands for his strong dynamics balanced with this beer-you-could-drink-all-day kind of lightness. Big WOW for me!!!

[Bottle] Pours dark brown with a small brown head. Aroma is big on coffee, caramel, and vanilla. Some vegetal notes come and go. Taste is also a blast of coffee, fairly hot, lots of vanilla, and cherry undertones. Smooth, decent mouthfeel, with a long finish that is fairly dry. Overall, a nice beer, although the caramel and vanilla are too strong, and the off-notes in the aroma drag it down.

Pours a medium thick black with a tan/chocolaty brown thin head. Smells of coffee, but has stronger vanilla and chocolate notes. Taste is heavily bitter coffee with an after taste fading into a sweeter vanilla blend. I’m not a huge coffee fan, so this one is gets knocked down just a peg on the taste, but overall it’s quite good.

UPDATED: FEB 23, 2015 Very enjoyable imperial porter. While I did feel it was a tad thinner than I wanted, it was smooth and creamy. A bitter iced coffee flavor dominates the taste with subtle hints of vanilla and chocolate coming through. The bitter coffee flavor lingers and continues to please my taste buds well beyond finishing the beer. Glad I picked this up.

A very nicely done roasted Porter. Coffee and vanilla dominate the aroma but some dark and roasted malts are also detectable. The flavor is broader including all of the above plus a clear citrus/orange hop flavor and enjoyably enhanced bitterness. Has a bit of a heartiness, palate-coating stout like character without being cloying, harsh or heavy.

Pours black with a tan head. Aromas of vanilla, chocolate syrup, creme brulee, coffee, and toffee. Taste of vanilla, intense bitter charred wood, molasses, coffee, chocolate syrup, and caramel. Strongly bitter, med-full body. Carbonation a bit prickly. Finishes dry with a lingering burnt marshmallow taste. This is a great imperial porter. Sort of a kick in the face but in a good way.

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